Category: Newsletter

December 2024

In this issue: A Boxing Day gift, book and events report, The Man Who Invented Christmas, what I’m reading, and a new possum visitor.

A Boxing Day gift

From December 26 through New Years Eve, Jolie Tunnell’s Advent Calendar features my story Murder Steampunk Style as a free download. All you have to do is sign up for her newsletter (you can cancel later, although I didn’t – it’s one of the few worth reading). I’ve mentioned Jolie before – her Loveda Brown historical mysteries are based in Idyllwild, California. She has more freebies for December, including her own prequel to the series. 

Book report

My literary novel, Before the Time Machine, is a dual-timeline story of H.G. Wells as a young man and a modern historian. The historian character is named Katherine. While she is only partly like me, her story is absorbing, as is her connection with her subject. People see “H.G. Wells” and think science fiction (which he called scientific romances), but mine is a literary novel, part Wells biography, part historical, part magical realism. And in its new cover, it’s particularly appealing in paperback.

In other book news, I’m delighted to report that my edited book of Wells’s science education writings was accepted into the collection at Senate House, University of London. Even more than I enjoy people buying my books is having them available in libraries. And this one, dedicated to historical research, will give scholars access to articles that haven’t been republished since the 1890s. 

Event report

The North Park Book Fair in October was the fabulous event it always is, even though I was assigned a half-booth in blazing sun. I even went round fanning people who came in to look. I’d show you a picture of my booth, but I was so busy I forgot to take any! But the fair looked like this:

Book fairs are wonderful places. Unlike a street fair, you don’t have to seek out who might be a reader of books. At a book fair, everyone there either loves to read or is accompanying someone who does. At street fairs, sometimes all people want is an interesting place to bring their dog. 

The Man Who Invented Christmas

No, it’s not a new movie, but I’ve intended to watch it since it came out in 2017. Charles Dickens, as I’ve said before, is a toughie for me. He wrote brilliant novels, but often in installments, so some of them read that way, with a cliffhanger at the end of each chapter. According to Judith Flanders’ The Victorian City, he walked miles each day around London. I’ve also visited his house, mostly to see what they’ve done with poor Catherine Dickens. She was his wife and bore him ten children, then he wanted to have actress Ellen Ternan as his mistress. So he not only abandoned Catherine, but filed charges that she was an unfit mother to avoid admitting his adultery as a cause of divorce. (Read the wonderful book by Lillian Nayder, The Other Dickens: A Life of Catherine Hogarth, the first major work to even consider her, or read this short interview.)

You know that I always try to separate an artist’s work from his/her life. Dickens was a master of narrative. This included not only his stories but his own life and public image. I’m always aware that what he hands out is designed to shape our ideas. But just when I get fed up with him, I recall this image:

It’s the unfinished “Dickens’s Dream” by Robert W. Buss, 1875, and it shows the late Dickens in his study (based on a famous photograph) surrounded by images of his many characters. Even unfinished, it’s brilliant. Why? Because although he’s perfectly still, it shows his characters as active beings from his mind.

And that’s what I enjoyed about The Man Who Invented Christmas.  It weaves together Dickens’s writing of A Christmas Carol with his own life. The characters come to him, upset at where the story is going. Or they appear to tell him something.  The film shows the writing process better than anything else I’ve seen: the continual interruptions, the moments of inspiration, the writer’s block, the gathering of names and phrases from people he meets or overhears.

Christopher Plummer is Scrooge. Simon Callow (who played the best Dickens ever in Dr Who: The Unquiet Dead) is the illustrator John Leech. And I try not to miss a film with Jonathan Pryce, who plays Charles’s father.

What I’m reading

I just finished Richard Osman’s The Last Devil to Die, the fourth book in his Thursday Murder Club series. The first one is being made into a movie with an all-star cast (Stephen Spielberg is in the picture because production is a combined effort of Netflix and Amblin, Spielberg’s company).

The Last Devil to Die was good, although I think the first and second books were better. You can see my review here. 

Now I’m in the middle of Arthur & George, by Julian Barnes, based on real events. I knew before I started that Arthur was Arthur Conan Doyle, the Victorian/Edwardian novelist and inventor of Sherlock Holmes. George, as it turns out, is George Edalji, a Staffordshire solicitor who was tried for animal mutilation crimes that took place in 1903. He served three years in prison, and Sir Arthur became a champion for the case being reviewed. Edalji was acquitted but awarded nothing for the three years lost. As with all Julian Barnes’s writing, the characters are finely drawn — you almost feel like you’re in Doyle’s mind. 

A new possum visitor

It’s hard to tell size in a photo, even more so online, but I’ve named him Pavarotti so that should give you an idea. He’s bigger than most cats.

Pavarotti is the one facing the camera, but he also agreed to share food with his daughter, Mickey P. So he’s sweet, and slow, and hungry, and walks with great confidence, marching across the deck like it’s a stage. But he always leaves some food behind for the others. 

And more!

Want to read previous newsletters? They’re located here at my website, where you can also find information and buy links to all my books. 

Until next time, keep grousing!

October 2024

In this issue: An overview of my books, independent Victorian women, the right to vote, Kate Morton, and the North Park Book Fair.

Book overview

I’d like to welcome those new to the newsletter, many of whom will have read my short story, “The Dancing Colonel”. You may not know my books, so here’s an overview. I’ve published:

The Tommy Jones Mysteries – a trilogy of three novels, all set in Victorian England and with characters that cross over among the books. The first, Murder at Old St. Thomas’s, is a medical mystery. The second, Murder at an Exhibition, is an art mystery (some characters are in “The Dancing Colonel”), and the third, Murder on the Pneumatic Railway, is a technology mystery. They are chronologically in that order, but can be read in any order since none are dependent on the others.

(And I apologize, readers, that the prequel to these, Murder at the Gasworks, has been delayed by life circumstances, and may take another year to finish.)

My contemporary humorous beach mystery, Bummer at Luna Beach, was released last year. It features a 72-year-old amateur sleuth and her journalist sidekick, and is sent in a fictional California beach town.

I also have a romantic mystery: A Heart Purloined. It’s a rivals-to-lovers tale, Victorian-set and quite clean. No gratuitous anything, just likeable characters and quite a bit of humor.

My literary novel, Before the Time Machine, is a dual-timeline story of H.G. Wells as a young man and a modern historian.

Last is my professional work as a historian, a collection of H.G. Wells’s writings on science teaching. They’re actually quite readable, and I did the editing and annotations for all of the pieces.

A new history book

Writing novels or not, I am still a historian. A new book will be published in November that looks really good.

Deserted Wives and Economic Divorce in 19th-Century England and Wales: For Wives Alone, is written by historians Jennifer Aston and Olive Anderson.

Sort of. Olive Anderson died in 2016, leaving behind piles of research on a little-studied provision of the Marriage Act of 1857.

Section 21 provided that if a woman’s husband deserted her and didn’t provide support, a court could pronounce that woman a “femme sole”. This meant she was completely in charge of all the property that had been left behind, including bank accounts, the house, and all his belongings. Her own property would also belong to her, instead of the legal assumption that it was her husband’s.

Aston got permission from Anderson’s daughter to use her research and create the book.

This kind of work is crucial to anyone studying the Victorian Era. For years Section 21, and the court cases filed under it, have been pretty much ignored. It’s tempting to see deserted women as merely victims. And yet quite a few were allowed to economically operate independently. I’ll know how many when I read the book.

As readers of this newsletter will be aware, I am always suspicious of absolutes. It’s commonly believed that Victorian women had no control over their property, and indeed little agency at all. My own research for the Tommy Jones mysteries shows that on the contrary, women of all classes were active participants, agents of change, and ignorers of stupid rules.

Since it’s an academic book, it will cost a lot. But what’s really cool is they’ve made the introduction available to read for free.

The right to vote

While we’re on the subject of legal rights, it’s voting time!

I know quite a few people who don’t intend to vote, which chokes me. We think of voting as a right, but in many ways it’s a privilege to live in a country where we can. Not all adult citizens have been able to vote for much of our history. And whenever people bring up the issue of women getting the vote in the U.S, there are always some myths to dispel.

First is that women’s suffrage emerged shortly before World War I with suffrage marches. Not so. In an informal sense, one could consider the smuggling of goods in the 17th century, and the boycotts on English tea in the 18th, a sort of voting. But in a literal sense, the formal women’s suffrage movement in America dates from 1848, the Seneca Falls convention.

The second myth is that the right to vote was granted to women in 1919. Quite a few states, primarily in the western U.S., already had women voters. What changed in 1919 was the right for women to vote for President. While that’s very important, of course, many women had been voting for local and state offices, and had held such offices themselves, for some time. 

Third is that American men always had the right to vote. Enslaved men didn’t, obviously. But even free men were often not eligible if they didn’t own property. It took the Revolutionary War for states to discuss universal male suffrage. 

And, the male franchise didn’t expand just to increase democracy. Read about the why here.

Anyway, be sure to vote. Lots of people fought so you could.

What I’m reading

Last month I told you I’m reading a book by Kate Atkinson, and this month it’s Kate Morton, so one would think I have a preference for authors named Kate!

Kate Morton is known for novels with multiple timelines and familial threads, and her writing style is almost unnoticeable since you get sucked into the story so fast. Secrets are her stock in trade, and in The Forgotten Garden there are mysteries.

Why was a four-year old girl found abandoned after getting off a ship from England to Australia? What secrets are held by a woman who lived in Australia her whole life even though she didn’t want to? And what will her granddaughter find when digging up the past?

It’s easy to feel like all of Morton’s books are one giant story even though they’re not. But I literally have to read something else in between reading her books. By that time, I’ve forgotten the previous book and can dive in anew. My favorite so far is The Lake House.

One upcoming event is . . . happening!

Despite getting turned down when I first applied, I have now been invited to the North Park Book Fair. I couldn’t be happier!

So if you’re near San Diego, be sure to come. It’s all about books, not like an ordinary street fair, and North Park is a wonderful community in which to dine and shop. And yes, I’ll be in costume! And yes, you can bring your dog! (I have noticed that dogs enjoy a good book.)

And more!

Want to read previous newsletters? They’re located here at my website, where you can also find information and buy links to all my books. 

Until next time, keep grousing!

In this issue: Birthday wishes for Mr Wells, free mystery books, what I’m reading, upcoming events cancelled, a bit of publicity.

Happy birthday, H.G. Wells

Today, September 21, marks H.G. Wells’ birthday and as you know, I’m a fan. I know that’s not popular these days, but it’s true!

Did you know that although Wells is known for his futuristic work (and has even been credited with creating science fiction as a genre), he began his career writing articles on science? He was training to be a science teacher long before he wrote The Time Machine. 

I’ve been researching Wells for a number of years, and I often had to hunt down his articles on science teaching in various libraries and journals. So I thought I’d collect them myself, and the result is H.G. Wells on Science Education, 1886-1897. It’s part of an academic library promotion at the moment — that was always my intention, to get it in academic libraries. That way, other scholars wouldn’t have to spend the time trying to find them all.

My most literary book, Before the Time Machine, is also based on Wells.  It’s a novel about a historian with a secret. She researches H.G. Wells. The story of Wells as a young man (I’m a Victorianist, remember — he was born in 1866) is interspersed with her research trips. The two protagonists form an interesting bond, a woman out of time and a man ahead of his.

Looking for a free mystery or two?

Get the party started! Check out the Mystery Birthday Club for some great reading fare (and yes, one of my stories is there too).

What I’m reading

I’m a recent fan of Kate Atkinson, and I just finished Started Early, Took My Dog. Jackson Brodie, Atkinson’s detective, is there but isn’t the main character. The central protagonist is Tracy, a retired police officer who makes an unexpected purchase that changes her life. I had never read any of the Jackson Brodie novels, and this was apparently the fourth, but it didn’t matter at all. I need to go back and start with Case Histories.

I think with authors like Kate Atkinson (and my other favorites like Rachel Cusk and Julian Barnes), you have to trust them to take you on the literary journey. There must be no second-guessing or frustration because the story isn’t clear at first or doesn’t seem to fit a known pattern. I have found trusting such authors to be a very rewarding pastime.

Ian McEwan is another trustworthy author. I also recently finished Amsterdam, the result of a used bookstore haul. It was a snarky tale of a composer struggling to finish a work, and his old friend, editor of a magazine. The story rotates around the deceased Molly, a lover they had in common. Although reviews talk a lot about it being a morality tale, I didn’t find it at all dull. McEwan writes beautifully, and the characters were interesting in their self-centeredness and the ways they justified what they did. 

Upcoming events are . . . cancelled.

Despite well-laid plans . . . well, you know how the saying goes. If you’re looking for me, I’ll be harder to find this fall.

I enthusiastically applied to the North Park Book Fair in San Diego, where I did well last year. Their reply to my application said they didn’t have room for me, and were emphasizing those who hadn’t had a table there before. And yet I have author friends I met there last year who got a table. There’s just no telling sometimes!

I also won’t be selling at the Olivenhain Craft Fair after all. But it’s still a good fair and if you’re in the area, do stop by. I’ll be the one lurking suspiciously around the homemade pastry booth.

A bit of publicity

A Warm Mug of Cozy has done a page featuring me, so I thought I’d share. 

The story I wrote for this anthology, “No Good Deed”, is a Rosie MacMahon story. If you don’t know Rosie, she’s my newest detective, a 70-something southern California woman with a mysterious past and a penchant for solving mysteries. Think Jessica Fletcher but the other coast. 

She and her journalist friend Lou are featured in Bummer at Luna Beach, released earlier this year.

And more!

Want to read previous newsletters? They’re located here at my website, where you can also find information and buy links to all my books. 

Until next time, keep grousing!

In this issue: Upcoming events, mystery research, and a newsletter shift. 

Upcoming events

My books and I will be at two events this fall:

On October 26 the North Park Book Fair happens in San Diego. I love this one. North Park is a wonderfully mixed neighborhood blessed with many different types of people, and a lot of them read. It was my most successful sale last year.

This year, I am pleased to announce a collaboration with DMD Designs. David Daymude makes, among other fine wood art, distinctive pens that delight writers. The display should be beautiful!

Then on November 9, we’ll again be together at the Olivenhain Arts and Crafts Fair in Encinitas, California. This event features handmade everything, from food to quilts to jewelry. Everything has to be made by the person in the booth, so I consider that independently published books qualify. 10% of vendor proceeds go to help preserve the 19th century Olivenhain Town Meeting Hall.

Mystery Research: Where is the Clerkenwell House of Detention?

I know, you’ve been asking yourself this question! But sometimes authoring means a bit of detection about something others would find not only trivial but downright irrelevant.

For Murder on the Pneumatic Railway, I wanted Samson Light held in prison awaiting trial while his protégé Tommy Jones runs around London trying to clear him of the charge of murder. Having already set the first mystery in Southwark, and the second around Holborn, I was cruising around Clerkenwell because I wanted to get a little more East End-ish but not go all out Dickensonian. On a side note, in the late 19th century Clerkenwell was known for clock-making. Here’s a sample:

Gorgeous, huh?

I knew the infamous Coldbath Fields prison was in the area, because I have a previous character in prison there for debt, but I was seeking not a prison but a gaol, a place where they hold people until they go to trial.( I’ve seen too many Father Brown episodes to want my character rescued after he’s been convicted — it’s way too complicated.) And there seemed to be one in the area, but it took a lot of searching to get it all separated from Coldbath Fields and the other prison buildings that had been on the same property before. As one website tried to explain it:

Clerkenwell (old) Prison, also known as the Clerkenwell House of Detention or Middlesex House of Detention was a prison in Clerkenwell, London, opened in 1847. It held prisoners awaiting trial. It stood on Bowling Green Lane conveniently close to the Middlesex Sessions House, where prisoners would be tried, on Clerkenwell Green to the south.

Well that helped with location, anyway. Then it goes on:

The House of Detention was built on the site of two earlier prisons, the Clerkenwell Bridewell for convicted prisoners and the New Prison for those awaiting trial. The Bridewell closed in 1794 and its functions were taken over by the Coldbath Fields Prison at Mount Pleasant. The New Prison was rebuilt in 1818 and in 1847, at which time its name changed to the House of Detention.

Confused? Me too. Was it the Middlesex House of Corrections? No, I think that’s Coldbath Fields. House of Detention? Why isn’t anyone calling it a gaol (or even a jail)? So Dickens Junior, ever the tour guide, decided to help out, via this page:

House of Detention —affectionately termed by the “profession” the House of Distinction, or more familiarly “the Tench “—is designed primarily for untried prisoners, the discipline being less severe than elsewhere. Prisoners under short sentence of imprisonment without hard labour—technically first-class misdemeanants — are also confined here; being not required to wear any distinctive dress or to have their hair cropped. It stands between Woodbridge-street and Rosoman-street, Clerkenwell. NEAREST Railway Station, Farringdon-street; Omnibus Routes, Exmouth-street and Goswell-road; Cab Rank,Clerkenwell-green.

– Charles Dickens (Jr.), Dickens’s Dictionary of London, 1879

I also came across the floor plan, which made it easier to identify.

One ghost tour also calls it the House of Detention. By this point, I was pretty sure I had the right place. And look! It’s still kind of there, though it’s called Clerkenwell Prison.

The Old Sessions House was the Middlesex Sessions House, where the cases were taken for trial, so that helped too.

I even found some engineering information. (And this, friends, is why I abandoned studying medieval technology for Victorian England, where there are a fabulous number of sources, all in English and none of them copyrighted.)

This picture kept coming up as I worked, claiming to be visiting hours at Clerkenwell prison, but I was unable to verify that this was the place I wanted.

It looks so nice, all the visitors talking to their friends and loved ones in the door holes. But is this the place? I start looking, as one does, at the Illustrated London News, but no. After doing image search and finding the image on Wikipedia, which does occasionally cite sources, it appears it’s not from the Illustrated London News (or the “Chronicle” as noted on another page), but from Henry Mayhew’s The Criminal Prisons of London, and Scenes of Prison Life (1862). Stupidly, I go looking at Biblio.com and other vendors to buy it ($65!) only to find the whole book, downloadable for free, at Google Books. (Every time I start to yell at Google for being a monstrosity, they do something nice.)

And in that book was everything: not just the image but what kind of prisoner went in what sort of cell, what furniture was in each cell, where the windows were, what sorts of crimes people were in for, and even a menu:

(BTW, I don’t think it’s right that if he’s there for three months he doesn’t get a pint of cocoa, but no one asked me. Or Mr Mayhew.)

So I had the place! And then something serendipitous happened. I was having trouble finding something to watch on the Roku during my exercises when BritBox conked out, so I started watching the film The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (I have been waiting till it was long enough after reading it to see the movie). There’s a scene in a jazz club, and I’m thinking, that looks like Clerkenwell Prison. But of course I’ve got Clerkenwell Prison on the brain, and so I look it up and what do you know: that’s where it was filmed, in the cellar. You can go there and visit the cellar, which didn’t get destroyed in the Blitz, or even hire it for events.

A newsletter shift

Haven’t heard from me since the beginning of July? You’re not alone.

Before that, I was sending out newsletters twice monthly, on the 1st and 15th. But sometimes things get in the way. So I’ve decided to publish the newsletter once a month, around the middle of the month. Hope this works for you!

Want to read previous newsletters? They’re located here at my website, where you can also find information and buy links to all my books. 

Until next time, keep grousing!

In this issue: A special promo for fans of the 19th century,  Murder by Death, garden visitors, the Bowl, and the Fair.

It’s true – I’ve actually written two more scenes in Murder at the Gasworks, the Tommy Jones prequel I’ve been stuck on for almost a year. Maybe it’s not writer’s block after all. But I don’t want to talk about it too much or I might jinx it, so later, later. 

Special promo for Regency/Victorian readers

I’ve never seen such a specific book promotion before, but naturally I joined it: the 19th c Historical Fiction BookFunnel promo. Great stuff available!

The 19th century (that’s the 1800s, because there is no year 0) is comprised of the Regency and Victorian eras in the UK. So what’s Regency and what’s Victorian?

The Regency era, until recently dominated by the books of Jane Austen, is considered to be 1795-1837. This is true although the actual regency (when George III was mad and his son governed in his place) was only 1811-1820. 

The popularity of the TV show Bridgerton, which is actually fantasy rather than historical fiction of any kind, attests to our interest in the Regency years. Unfortunately, Bridgerton contains little that is factual about the era.

My books, or at least the Tommy Jones Mysteries, are all set after 1850, and Queen Victoria ruled from 1837-1901. The prequel I’m writing begins in 1860.  Murder at Old St. Thomas’s is 1862, Murder at an Exhibition is 1863, and Murder on the Pneumatic Railway is 1865. These would be considered mid-Victorian. My other great interest, the young H. G. Wells, would be late Victorian and Edwardian. Edwardian is a whole other story.

Murder by Death

Mystery movies often contain in-jokes about other mysteries, but none went as far as this one. Famous fictional detectives with only slightly changed names (Sam Diamond, Jessica Marples, Dick and Dora Charleston, etc.) are invited to the haunted-style house of the rich Lionel Twain for a murder. 

The script is by Neil Simon, and the cast is amazing: David Niven, Maggie Smith, James Coco, Elsa Lanchester, even Alec Guinness as the blind butler. 

Is it dated? Oh, yes. It was made in 1976.  There are cultural stereotypes, set-ups now considered inappropriate, and gag jokes. If you can overlook these, it’s hysterically funny, and a real tribute to all those Agatha Christie style mysteries. Lives are threatened, the detectives are conceited and competitive, and the host is not what he appears. He has dirt on all the detectives, and grievances against them. 

The movie Clue (1985) was practically plagiarized from Murder by Death, so if you liked that, you’ll like this.

Garden visitors

My garden is quite busy in summer, and we’ve had quite a few guests.

Usually there are only one or two rabbits competing with me for the strawberries; this year there are four so far plus a baby bunny. Given their reputation, I have often wondered why only one or two come graze in summer; with two you’d think there’d be more, and this year there are.

In other news, I believe Petunia the possum has a pouchful of joeys again, so I’m looking forward to seeing new babies. Three from her first litter are still hanging around.

But there are also some predators. A hawk landed in the tree by my desk window and ate his lunch on right there on the branch. A coyote has visited during the day lately, jumping the fence and checking out my yard. Drives my cat crazy. 

The grapes haven’t yet ripened so there are no fig beetles or raccoons yet, but I’m sure they’re next!

The Bowl 

It may be unusual to discuss a composer in a writer newsletter, but I went to the opening night at the Hollywood Bowl, and they featured Henry Mancini’s music. I’ve been a fan for a long time, ever since I first saw The Pink Panther on TV as a kid (which, now that I think about it, was a mystery movie). I can hum the tunes to the theme music of Charade, The Great Race, and The Days of Wine and Roses. 

How was the concert? A little too lyrical on the playing, I thought. Yes, Moon River and Crazy World sound beautiful with violins, but the themes from Hatari and Peter Gunn need a jazzier, more rhythmic feel. (I will say I thought I was there to hear the L.A. Philharmonic, but instead it was the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. Apparently the L.A. Phil merely “manages” that orchestra.) And I have no idea what was up with Michael Bublé coming on for only the last two songs. 

The Fair

Last weekend I went to what we all called The Del Mar Fair, now renamed as the San Diego County Fair. I go for one day usually, but I haven’t been for the last few years. The baking and cooking competition foods had been moved from the large Grandstand Building to an Exhibit Hall that is usually full of vendors. I saw few people buying anything. With online shopping, the days of going to the fair and buying a Vitamix machine, aluminum siding, or a massage chair seem to be gone.

This year’s theme was “Let’s Go Retro”, which apparently meant from the 1950s through the 1990s. The exhibit had recreated rooms from the different decades, and I was reminded of my old furniture, computer, and toys. 

Do I remember antenna balls? I have one on my car right now! Not everyone has a new antenna-free car, you know. 

And more!

Want to read previous newsletters? They’re located here at my website, where you can also find information and buy links to all my books. You can post comments there too.

Until next time, keep grousing!

View on the web

In this issue: A nutty musical number, Andrea Kress, The Lady Vanishes, from pantser to plotter, and Thomas Jefferson cukes.

I Think I’d Better Think it Out Again

Yes, it’s the song that Fagin sings in the musical Oliver! But I changed the lyrics to reflect my frustration with the marketing aspects of my career as a writer.

So if you want to see, and hear, something pretty nutty: 

Or watch on YouTube here

No applause, please. I know, I’m no singer. But it had to be done.

Author of the month: Andrea Kress

This month my author focus is on Andrea Kress, who writes historical cozies. This is the first of the Berkshires Cozy Mystery series, set in the 1930s. 

In Murder at Highfield, nurse Aggie Burnside leaves New York to join a friend who lives in the Berkshire Mountains. She’s drawn into a case where a judge is murdered, and supplants the bumbling police inspector in solving the mystery. Take a look!

Mystery Movie: The Lady Vanishes

The Lady Vanishes (1938), with Margaret Lockwood and Michael Redgrave, opens with a miniature train set, then takes you live into the hotel where a number of people are stuck overnight due to an avalanche. This way all the main characters (the two British men traveling together, the wealthily afianced young woman, the illicit couple, the roguish scholar, the dottering old lady) are introduced.

Dame May Whitty’s character (the dottering old lady) is on the train and disappears, but the afianced young woman (Margaret Lockwood) is the only one who admits to having seen her. The roguish scholar (Redgrave) helps her as a lark.

This was the film that got Alfred Hitchcock appreciated, and it contains a number of his signature tropes: playful sexuality, humor, an enemies to lovers relationship, one person believing what others don’t, shadowy hints of foreboding, random murder, and imminent dangers to characters one has come to like. There’s also a head injury that makes the main character question what she sees. Even the chugging of the steam train seems to go from reassuring to sinister. …. And yes, the fact that it’s made in 1938 does play a role in the story.  

From pantser to plotter

There’s an old saying that writers are either plotters, carefully planning out and outlining their book before they write, or pantsers, those who write “by the seat of their pants” without a plan. Most, of course, do a bit of both. 

Having done years of historical research and lecture outlines where I had to be a plotter, I was so happy to be a pantser as a novelist. And yet…

If you follow my newsletter you might get the feeling I’m stuck on the prequel to the Tommy Jones Mysteries. It’s not “writer’s block” but I’ll admit I’m in a bind. I set the Murder at the Gasworks aside to do other things, including publish my cozy Bummer at Luna Beach. And when I came back to my draft, I realized I’d literally lost the thread. I think I know who done it and why (which is a first for me!), but I’m at the half-way point and don’t know what comes next.

Taking a look again, writing summaries of all the scenes, what jumped out at me were the “doubles”. Two bodies, two detectives, two women working to help, two gasworks, and one boy: Tommy Jones. Perhaps this larger idea might get me back on track!

Thomas Jefferson cukes

I’ve tried and tried to grow cucumbers, but we get a lot of gray, overcast, semi-coastal days and they don’t do well. I’ve tried different locations and different cultivars: Japanese, gherkin, lemon, English, burpless.

But last year I was given a packet straight from Monticello of Long Green Improved Cucumber (Cucumis sativus).

I love Thomas Jefferson. I do. I’ve read, in additional to his political writings, his garden notebook and his love letters. Yes, I know the Louisiana Purchase was an abuse of presidential power, but I wrote a paper in college on his Embargo of 1807 and I think it did great things for American industry. He walked up Pennsylvania Avenue to get inaugurated instead of taking a carriage. I’m a fan.

Now I confess that these particular cucumbers were not grown by Jefferson. The cultivar wasn’t around until the mid-nineteenth century. But they come jumping out of the potting soil, every single blessed seed, and grow and grow. The cucumbers are delicious. The fact that they’re somehow connected to TJ’s favorite place to be just makes them better.

And more!

Want to read previous newsletters? They’re located here at my website, where you can also find information and buy links to all my books. You can post comments there too.

Until next time, keep grousing!

In this issue: 20% off all my books, Ellery Queen, A Warm Mug of Cozy, June author event cancelled, and the SS Great Eastern.

Subscriber special!

Starting today and continuing for a fortnight, readers can save 20% on all my books by ordering direct at Grousable Bookshop. Use the code NEWS20. You can even get an autographed copy if you’re in the U.S.

But shhhhh, for now it’s just for newsletter subscribers.

Ellery Queen

I was watching a mystery show the other day: Death in Paradise. They usually have four suspects, but this time only had two, and the murderer was one of them. I still couldn’t figure it out.

When I can’t figure it out, I always hear Truman Capote saying to the roomful of detectives in Murder by Death (1976): 

You’ve tricked and fooled your readers for years. You’ve tortured us all with surprise endings that made no sense. You’ve introduced characters in the last five pages that were never in the book before. You’ve withheld clues and information that made it impossible for us to guess who did it.

And it was one of those. The vital clue was at the very end. (More on Murder by Death another time!)

I miss the tv show Ellery Queen.

At the end, Jim Hutton as Ellery would turn to the camera and ask whether you, the audience, had figured it out. He’d remind you of all the clues, and then there’d be a commercial for you to think/discuss at home and come to your conclusion. After the commercial, Ellery would tell you (and the other characters) the answer.

And yes, that’s David Wayne (whom I’ll always see in my mind playing the song Farewell, Amanda in the Tracy-Hepburn classic film Adam’s Rib) playing his dad.

My short story was accepted!

“No Good Deed”, a story featuring as Rosie and Lou from Bummer at Luna Beach, was accepted for the A Warm Mug of Cozy second anthology of cozy mystery stories. It’s a detective story. I can’t call Rosie and Lou detectives, though, since they’re amateurs and police detective Rory Gallardo is totally involved.

This is a major distinction in mysteries: is it “amateur sleuth” or “police detective”? Sherlock Holmes, arguably, was neither, so he seems to come under the moniker “private investigator” (which these days sounds pretty noir). Sticking to one of these categories is expected. 

So when was the last time I did what was expected? My first Victorian mystery, Murder at Old St. Thomas’s, features Inspector Slaughter (“police detective”). But Murder at an Exhibition has an “amateur female sleuth”. And how do I categorize Murder on the Pneumatic Railway? It’s more of a detective ensemble – everyone has a role to play in solving it.

In my “No Good Deed” short story, Rosie and Lou are looking for a deed that will reveal who owns property on an island off the coast of California. They find much more than they bargained for, and must hunt for a murderer. I don’t know the publication date yet, but the last A Warm Mug of Cozy anthology came out in fall. I’ll let you know!

Change of plans

You may recall that I was excited about being a local author at Beach Town Books in San Clemente on June 23. Unfortunately, the event has been cancelled. They are considering a July reschedule, so I’ll let you know.

While I’m thinking about bookstores, I want to shout out to local bookshops in the San Diego area: Artifact Books in Encinitas, which hosts fantasy and thriller authors out on the sidewalk because the shop is so small. Mysterious Galaxy, whose eclectic collection of fantasy and mysteries leads to unexpected discoveries.

And The Book Catapult, which has its own book club.

Did you know that when want a new book and you order through Bookshop.org, you can choose which bookstore to purchase from? You can set it to order from these, or your local indie bookstore. If they don’t have it in stock, they order from the publisher and it’s shipped to you. It’s a great way to support independent shops.

Historical research notes

Thanks to the bright-eyed readers who reported the incorrect link to my research process posts, I’ve added a second installment on the possible New Orleans short story and you can see both here.

In another change of plans, I will be setting aside the New Orleans story for now. Instead the focus is on the Tommy Jones Mysteries prequel, which has been half-written for many months. I’d love to publish Murder at the Gasworks later this year. So the research posts will now return to Victorian England, and here’s a new note.

When Murder at Old St. Thomas’s begins, Inspector Slaughter greets his new sergeant. It’s 1862, and the sergeant has come over from Baltimore on the “Great Eastern”, also known in the painting above as the “Great Leviathan”. Designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, it was 692 feet long and was the largest passenger ship in the world, and could carry 4,000 people. It featured paddlewheel, sails, and a screw propeller. (Yes, all three.)

Like other extravagant technologies, the SS Great Eastern would not fulfill the dream. There wasn’t demand for the amount of cargo it could carry, and at various times in its history the boiler exploded, there were pounding noises from the hull, and it struck a rock off Long Island that ripped a hole in the ship. Although it would help lay the transAtlantic cable, it was defunct by 1874. 

By the way, I love researching good technologies that get abandoned. My favorite airplane, the Airbus A380, also got off to a rocky start in 2000, going far over budget, requiring nations to chip in to build it, and developing cracks after ten years. Production was ended in 2021 because it was too large for the airport system.

I promise more parallels to contemporary life as I continue research for Gasworks.

And more!

Want to read previous newsletters? They’re located here at my website, where you can also find information and buy links to all my books. You can post comments there too.

Until next time, keep grousing!

In this issue: Newsletter snafus, The Saint, Astrid, the garden in spring, and author M. Culler.

Newsletter news and snafus

A big thanks to the readers who contact me when the newsletter touches them. I got lots of mail about my poor bees from good-hearted folks who lauded my efforts. Made me feel better about the whole thing!

Now for the snafu. 

I’ve also received unhappy notes about the formatting of the newsletter, especially how it looks on phones, or in dark mode, or other viewports where strange things happen: white text on beige background, dark text on the red brocade, etc. I can’t account for it, so I’ve eliminated all the backgrounds.

Yup, we’ve got a plain white newsletter now. I like decoration, but it’s no good if we can’t read it!

Yes, it’s The Saint

Awhile back I was at Footnote Books in San Diego, and picked up an old paperback of The Saint in Europe by Leslie Charteris. Why? Because I like the TV show with Roger Moore, which I watch on occasion. But I’d never read the books.

As you can see here, I’m kinda hooked now. No reason to go elsewhere (it’s one of those fabulous old-fashioned shops with used books piled to the ceiling), so I returned to Footnote and got three more. The first two covers match The Saint in Europe. I could have gotten all matching covers, but that 25 cent Avon paperback was too cool not to buy.

Very few things are “dated”, to my mind, and these stories certainly aren’t. I found surprisingly few anti-female passages (which are common in spy books from this era). In one story I was a bit shocked at The Saint killing someone as coolly as he might order dinner, but overall the stories were varied and interesting. Just when I thought there was a formula, Charteris would break it. 

It’s not surprising, I suppose, that the Saint, a man trying to help people out while he has some fun (and profit) for himself, would still work in our times.

For those who like author notes: Leslie Charteris was half British and half Chinese, so couldn’t establish residency in the U.S. due to the Chinese Exclusion Act. It took an act of Congress to give him and his daughter permission in 1942, one year before the appeal of the Act. Charteris became a U.S. citizen after World War II.

Neurodivergent mystery TV

While fiction and media have always featured neurodivergent characters (Sherlock Holmes counts!), the past decade or so has brought more differently-abled mystery characters to our attention. The most popular literary example might be Nita Prose’s The Maid (which to me seemed to come rather late to the party).

On PBS, there’s Astrid. She’s an adult who’s been dealing with severe social anxiety forever, and her job is designed to keep her from having too much human contact. She knows she’s on the autism spectrum, but has special abilities. She can remember most of the case files she copies in Criminal Records, finding parallels and connections.

Her counterpart is a creative and disorganized police detective, and the story is as much about how they work together as it is the mysteries they solve. In French with great subtitles that capture the essence of phrasing, not just the words. Highly recommended. 

The garden in spring

Of course, I don’t have to watch TV, because I can just look out the window. I saw one rabbit jump over another rabbit’s head. They did it three times just for fun. We seem to have a dove ménage-à-trois after a hawk attack took out one of a pair, we have more wrens than usual, and one sparrow spends all day, every day, trying to attract a mate by screaming bloody murder from a nearby tree.

Between the sparrow and my cat, it’s taking a very long time to record the audiobook for Bummer at Luna Beach. Even with my best efforts, those animal sounds sneak in. And some animal sounds I’m putting in on purpose–I’m thinking of having the sound of seagulls between the scenes. They’re French seagulls, so pretend you don’t notice. 

Author of the month: M. Culler

In the middle of each month, I like to share an author whose work I’ve gotten to know or who writes in genres similar to my own. Writers who write well, and whose work I like to read, are highest on my list.

This month I’d like to introduce you to M. Culler, writer of cozy mysteries that are bright and intelligent. Take a look.

Her A New Year’s Cat-aclysm features a feline, of course. The main character is the new owner of an animal shelter, and the biggest donation goes missing. As with many of M. Culler’s books, there’s a bit of romance there, too.

M. also runs the Book Dragons readers group on Facebook. Like me, she writes in several genres. If you like cozy mystery or romance or fantasy, I think you’ll enjoy her books.

And more!

• Want to read previous newsletters? They’re located here at my website, where you can also find information and buy links to all my books. You can post comments there too.
• Want to read blog posts on history and writing, or even teaching online? See my Lisahistory blog.

Until next time, keep grousing!

Subscribe here to receive newsletters by email

In this issue: Bodies, grouse news, and The Story of the Bees.

Bodies

There was a time when I didn’t review any shows from pay services, but now it’s almost impossible to watch anything without using one. Pay channels are the new studios, and many have the resources to engage in deep levels of historical research to create high production values. 

Bodies is a Netflix production, the story of a body that appears, naked and with an eye missing, in four different timeframes. The first of these, chronologically, is Victorian, which is why I watched. 

The narratives set in 1890 and 1941 feature brilliant production design by Richard Bullock, who also did Peaky Blinders (set in the 1920s). Each of the four eras was filmed in a way that indicate the time. So there’s more sepia for 1890, more flat grays and blacks for 1941,  natural color for the present, and blue for the future. This is cinematic time design–photographs and movies have made us think of these eras in these colors.

Grouse news

Yes, there is grouse news, a first! The US is proposing plans to protect the sage grouse. Some say it’s too little, too late to save their habitat–it is nevertheless a good step. 

Although this is not the Grousable Books breed (that’s a Black Grouse), the bird is extremely similar. Rarely employed as a hunted game bird to be frightened by beaters, it is nevertheless an important species for the health of nearly 70 million acres of land in the western United States. 

The Story of the Bees

First, the neighbor texted, worried about a swarm of bees on our common fence. By the time I got out there, the bees had made a beard on the underside of the compost bin lid, and were busily creating a comb. I assured the neighbor (who has a small child) that I could get them to leave by the next day. It was a small group so calling in someone was silly.

Late that night, I went out and opened the lid, tipping it back against the fence. They would be cold, I thought, and when the sun rose they would fly away. Exposing the group usually does the trick (if they’re out of the sun, I’ve used a halogen light at night to the same effect).

But they didn’t leave. In the morning, they simply all moved to the underside of the lid, bearding and building. I went out and had a word with them. They were the gentlest bees ever, and while they listened patiently it was clear they would not acquiesce to my request. I’d become fond of them and kind of wanted them to stay, just not right there. We created a “bee box” with cardboards and three hastily purchased comb frames, put it up against the bin, and waited. They ignored it.

So as the sun was setting on the second day, I came up with the clever idea of removing the whole lid and moving it to the other side of the garden.  If you have read my novel Before the Time Machine, and think I may have things in common with the character Katherine, I do: clumsiness. I dropped the lid.

Beekeeping enthusiasts may be worried at this point about what I was wearing. No, I am not a beekeeper. In fact, I’ve been afraid of them most of my life. (I grew up in the era of films like Killer Bees and The Swarm–do you remember the ending with the Volkswagen and the Superdome?) I wore long sweatpants, a long-sleeved flannel shirt, my Dodgers baseball cap, rose gloves, and an over head/under arm strapped netting thing I bought for mosquitos.

Frantically Googling how to make bee smoke as they flew around in confusion, I ran inside and got my stainless steel kettle, filled it with pine needles and toilet paper roll, lit it, and used the smoke to manually move the bees. They were all trying to recreate their bunch on the bin lid. I talked quietly to them, and tried to scoop some off the uneven surface into an orange Home Depot bucket and put the lid on fast. I caught about half, and the others flew up–not at me, just up.

It took me two hours to move about 95% of them to the other side of the yard. By the end I was using yogurt containers to get barely a dozen at a time. And if they ever do make honey, it will taste like burnt pine needles.

aI didn’t get stung. Not once.

They all found their way back into a bunch on the lid, now safely across the yard, as the sun set. When I went out early next morning, they were asleep. I set up our faux bee box and put a little cardboard ramp so they could walk the plank. I saw them check it out later that day, then I left the house for two hours. When I came back, they were gone. There was one bee left sitting on the box, looking dazed.

Is there a moral? Well, I should probably have waited one more day instead of feeling pressured by the neighbor’s concern. Terrified someone would start bringing out poison spray or something, I moved them further than they could safely move (the limit is three feet), and when I dropped the lid I had to move them all manually. There were fatalities, but not as many as I feared. I hope they don’t let their bee friends know what I did, because I want my garden to be a welcoming home to living critters. 

I miss them. 

And more!

• Want to read previous newsletters? They’re located here at my website, where you can also find information and buy links to all my books. You can post comments there too.
• Want to read blog posts on history and writing, or even teaching online? See my Lisahistory blog.

Until next time, keep grousing!

Subscribe here to receive newsletters by email

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In this issue: Gosford Park, The Alewives, 30% off pre-orders for Bummer at Luna Beach, a new revision of the Wells book, and flowers.

Gosford Park

As readers may recall, I’m not a huge fan of current movies. Too much detailed violence, characters in pain, angst and dark psychology for me. I like the bodies to be dead when I get there.

So I recently had the pleasure of rewatching Gosford Park (2001), a film that had trouble getting funded (two of the participating actors contributed) but is one of the best Agatha Christie-style films of all time.

It takes place, naturally, at a manor house shooting party. Not only is it directed by Robert Altman and written by up-and-comer Julian Fellowes, but the cast is nothing short of astonishing: Maggie Smith, Eileen Atkins, Helen Mirren, Michael Gambon, Clive Owen, and more. Using the “Upstairs, Downstairs” motif that would later feature in Downton Abbey, the cinematography is gorgeous, the acting sublime.

And the story? The murder doesn’t happen till significantly into the film, which I love. (Avid readers may have noticed that my mysteries work that way, too!)

Book recommendation: The Alewives

It’s not easy to write a believable novel set in the 14th century, but Elizabeth R. Anderson has done it with The Alewives: take a look!

Particularly appropriate for Women’s History Month, three women in dire financial straights after the Black Death set out to make their way as alewives. It’s a charming medieval murder mystery (bet you didn’t know I was a medievalist before I became a Victorianist) and timely—they are trying to reconstruct their lives after the plague. 

Writing stuff

Wondering what I’ve been up to, author-wise? Gearing up for the April 20 release of Bummer at Luna Beach! I’m even creating flyers and mailers for this one, since I expect it to be popular in coastal California. You may have already seen my virtual “billboard” for the fictitious town of San Benno.

And yes, a few versions of this cozy mystery are available for pre-order now: Amazon (Kindle e-book) and Barnes & Noble (hardcover).  The paperback will be available everywhere soon.

OR you can pre-order the e-book or or signed paperback nwo directly from Grousable Bookshop and it will ship April 20. (For newsletter readers only, use the code NEWS30 for 30% off when you pre-order from Grousable Bookshop!)

In other writing news, I just finished re-editing my academic reference work, H.G. Wells on Science Education, 1886-1897. The revised edition will be released well before the man’s birthday in September. Those interested in reading work Wells wrote before The Time Machine (actually quite delightful even though it’s all about science teaching) should wait for the new release. Revised editions take a while to propagate through the system.

Flowers

After all the rains, the flowers in my garden went crazy. The little apple tree in the middle has never been this covered in blossoms. (For SoCal low-chill gardeners, those are Anna and Dorsett Golden types.)

So left to right, sparaxis, apples, Dutch iris. If you’re not familiar with sparaxis, it’s one of those South African bulbs that does really well in the alkaline soil and sunny conditions in southern California. Plus they take care of themselves, and come up every year. Can’t ask for more than that.

And more!

• Want to read previous newsletters? They’re located here at my website, where you can also find information and buy links to all my books. You can post comments there too.
• Want to read blog posts on history and writing, or even teaching online? See my Lisahistory blog.

Until next time, keep grousing!

Subscribe here to receive newsletters by email

Seeing Stars

In this issue: Poor Tommy Jones, production design awards, early spring in the garden, seeing stars.

Poor Tommy Jones

It’s not enough that he’s a nice kid on mean streets, but he’s being ignored by his author (that’s me). And here he is supposed to be the star!

Tommy was a curious kid in Murder at Old St. Thomas’s, a source in Murder at an Exhibition, and the main detective in Murder on the Pneumatic Railway. But Murder at the Gasworks will be a prequel, showing how he became the ward of Inspector Slaughter and his wife, Ellie. There’s a murder (possibly two) and two Sergeants and a feud between the City of London Police and the Met. 

These characters have been set aside for months as I prepare for the release of Bummer at Luna Beach, a contemporary SoCal cozy that has nothing to do with Tommy or Victorian England. The prequel was half-drafted when I got into this cozy craziness. 

Then there’s always the question: are the Tommy Jones Mysteries cozies? or are they more Traditional mysteries? I don’t think Tommy will care. He sits on the hard stone floor at the gasworks waiting for his story to be told. 

Production design awards

As you know, I love movies, and in particular I’m a fan of good production design. That’s where the look and mood of the movie comes through, in the set decoration (what objects are in the shot and how they’re arranged), scenic design, costuming — pretty much anything visual that isn’t cinematography. I’m afraid I don’t care as much about the movie stars.

I follow the Set Decorators Society of America, which gives awards. See the full list of nominees and winners for 2023.

Early spring in the garden

You have no doubt heard about the storms that have flooded parts of SoCal over the last couple of months. It wasn’t that much water, just a lot for here, and in some ways we just aren’t prepared for it. I don’t even have a rain barrel to collect it. I used a trash can. And a trug. And a bucket. 

Animals arrived waterlogged at the food bowl I set up under an umbrella near the back door. They came spiky, especially the punk possums, and were grateful for dry food. This is my star possum at the moment, Shy Petunia (it turns out there were two Petunias, one bold and one shy).

As the days lengthen, those previously waterlogged bulbs and trees have also recovered. Once again, I’m working on creating some English Country Garden in my chapparal scrub suburb. Wish me luck!

Seeing stars

Quite a few people have read my novels, and hundreds have downloaded my short stories, “The Dancing Colonel”and “Murder Steampunk Style”. That’s great!

Indie authors love reviews, but I’m also delighted with stars. Please consider giving my work some love on GoodReads, Amazon, or wherever you shop? It helps other readers, and me too!

Love e-books?

All my e-books are half off at Smashwords March 3-9. Enjoy!

And more!

• Want to read previous newsletters? They’re located here at my website, where you can also find information and buy links to all my books. You can post comments there too.
• Want to read blog posts on history and writing, or even teaching onlien? See my Lisahistory blog.

Until next time, keep grousing!

Subscribe here to receive newsletters by email

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In this issue: Lessons in History, helping a katydid, Black Orchid Blues, panning Belgravia, and promo time for e-books.

Lessons in History

I am currently reading (later than many others, I know) Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus.

In portraying the challenges of being a female scientist before second-wave feminism really got going, the book is teaching readers about history. Readers and movie viewers are continually surprised by what is revealed to them in a story set in the past. Often they go look things up to find out what really happened.

After 30 years of teaching history to college students, I can tell you that one can teach historical themes and events, but that doesn’t mean they’re being learned. 

Fiction books and films can play a huge role in teaching people. Narrative is a great way to learn, because following a story is natural (following an argument, like in a history book, is not). Movies like The Imitation Game, The Help, and Hidden Figures, and books like Lessons in Chemistry, help us understand the past even if they’re just one modern-day interpretation. It’s our doorway to learning some history.

Helping a katydid

I was sitting out in front on a cold night, looking up above the door. There was something up there, something ugly dragging a leg and what looked like a wing. A cricket? cockroach?

It was a katydid, missing its back leg. Digging out a box with holes in the lid, I took him in for the night. He rapidly ate a piece of apple, then went to sleep. I read up on injured katydids (as one does) and discovered they can survive missing a big back leg. Though they don’t grow them back, they learn to rebalance in a couple of days. 

Next day, he was climbing up to the top of the box and clearly ready to leave my comfy accommodation. And sure enough, three days later, he stood on a tall flower to show me he was ok.

Recommended book

Allow me to introduce you to author Persia Walker. Her book, Black Orchid Blues, is a complex historical thriller with a completely different pace than my books, but great historical detail.

If you’re looking for a book that grabs you into the story right away, I’d recommend it! Described by Publishers Weekly as a “dark, sexy novel”, it takes the reader on a fast-paced ride through the underbelly of 1920s Harlem.

Panning Belgravia

I don’t usually pan movies and TV shows, but I confess being disappointed by the first episode of Belgravia. It has fans, I know. I should be one, since it’s written by Julian Fellowes, creator of Downton Abbey and other good stuff. Plus it’s set in the 19th century.

Look at those costumes! There’s Harriet Walter, one of my favorite actors (on the left with the parasol)! It’s got to be fabulous.

Unfortunately, Belgravia is too soap-opera-ish for me. The first episode begins in 1815 in Brussels, so if you know your history it’s clear what’s coming. Napoleon is about to meet his Waterloo, so all the British troops are off to confront him. Luckily, we are not subjected to the battle itself (if you’ve seen Waterloo with Christopher Plummer as Wellington and Rod Steiger as Napoleon you’ve seen the best already). 

I’m glad not to view the dying up close, and I appreciate the focus on women left at home, but very quickly we’re into who was in love and shouldn’t be (due to class, of course), who got pregnant, who acted inappropriately, and who shouldn’t have been invited to the Duchess’s tea party. Plus a tiny historical tidbit of the Duchess of Bedford inventing afternoon tea (which may well be a manorial legend). It’s like Downton Abbey speeded up, where we’re supposed to mourn the dead before we even know who they are.

But the performances were excellent considering a rather thin script, and the costumes and sets simply gorgeous. 

Promo time for e-books

FREEBIE: From February 7-March 10 my short story “Murder Steampunk Style” is free at BookFunnel’s Dark Night/Bright Light cozy mystery giveaway. And oh yes, there are books there written by other authors too!

Only a few days left for Kobo’s Great Reads Under $5 e-book promo for Murder on the Pneumatic Railway. That’s the one where Tommy Jones must help get his old biology tutor, Samson Light, out from under the charge of murdering a railway clerk. Victorian London and Durham at their finest. You can get it here. This one is for readers from Canada, USA, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.

And more!

• Want to read previous newsletters? They’re located here at my website, where you can also find information and buy links to all my books. You can post comments there too.
• Want to read blog posts on history and writing, or even teaching onlien? See my Lisahistory blog.

Until next time, keep grousing!

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In this issue: Proof copies, Kismet, a possum report, The Night Circus, a romance (plus one) for February.

Proof copies

One of the crazy things about publishing is you get a choice, albeit a small one, of where to print your books. I requested proof copies from both Ingram (which feeds bookshops) and Amazon to check the quality. 

I’m very pleased with both, but proof copies give me a chance to check things. Like here, the gutter (the part of the page near the middle) is too small, so you have to open the book wide to read it. I’ll be adjusting the margins to be smaller on the outside, bigger on the inside.

The Night Circus

This novel by Erin Morgenstern was my read for this fortnight. Written in 2011, and winning prizes for fantasy fiction, the tale is about the people involved in an unusual circus that is only open at night. There are few acrobats and no elephants. Each tent offers guests a different experience.

I’m glad I didn’t know it was a fantasy before I started it; I read it like literary fiction, because the prose was so evocative. It was like total immersion into a different kind of circus–black and white instead of flashy colors, real magic instead of tacky illusions, and a bizarre and varied circuit of appearances. From the clockmaker to the fortune teller, the characters are deeper and less stereotypical than I expected, with their own talents and desires.

Some suspense was created by having two of the characters, unbeknownst to themselves, set into a competitive game by a surreptitious authority. It’s a competition that won’t end until one of them is killed, presumably by the other or as a result of competing magic. Yet the word “magic” is rarely used in the book; such powers are accepted as belonging to certain people, and their use is to delight rather than harm. An excellent read, more steampunk than fantasy.

Possum report

I name the possums that come into our backyard, of course. When a large gray one appeared, I named him Cassius because he was always hungry (see Shakespeare on this). But once his belly dragged on the ground and I saw multiple tiny tails, I realized he was a she, so she’s Cassie. Two of her kits have stayed in the yard. One is bold and the other shy, but they look alike so I’m not sure which one this is on the left:

It’s Cassie having some water on the right. So this means all the possums in the yard right now are female (they have the pointier faces). Last night, I heard one clicking in the night. That’s the sound adults make to let their kits know where they are, so there may be more out there than I think!

Film review: Kismet

While my days aren’t ruled by what’s on Turner Classic Movies, I do find gems there that are worth giving up an evening of writing. Kismet is one of those gems.

Yes, it’s a 1955 musical, so you get the high-waisted costumes and hair sprayed within an inch of its life. There are songs and dances that only tangentially play into the story, and many poorly disguised sexual entendres are broadly delivered. But it has two aspects that make it quite special. 

The first is the source of the story. Hajj the Beggar, his heights of wealth and power alternating with the depths of poverty, seems straight out of the Arabian Nights. Don’t expect any historical “accuracy” — Kismet is set in a “fictional Baghdad” from the tales, not an actual place. This gave the art directors (including Preston Ames, who also did An American in Paris) free reign to create fantasy sets and outrageous costumes.

In addition, the basis of the story was a 1911 play by Edward Knoblock, with the role of Hajj seemingly written for Oscar Ashe, a Shakespearean actor/manager (not unlike my character Cyril Price in Murder at Old St. Thomas’s). On Broadway in 1953, Alfred Drake played the role, and Howard Keel plays him in the film–clearly, an expert who can ham it up is needed!

The second extraordinary thing is the source of the music. Although the lyrics/book were written by Charles Lederer and Luther Davis, the music is primarily adapted from work by Alexander Borodin, a 19th century Russian composer. Songs that became known, such as “Stranger in Paradise”, were based on his musical themes, which makes me smile whenever I hear Borodin on classical music radio. (An American in Paris did something similar, but with the music of George Gershwin, which was very different.)

BOGO at Kobo

In the mood for a bit of historical mystery romance? Kobo is offering a Buy One Get One special through February, and guess what’s on the list?

So you can get A Heart Purloined and another romance book together. Kobo is where I buy my e-books too!

And more!

• Want to read previous newsletters? They’re located here at my website, where you can also find information and buy links to all my books. You can post comments there too.
• Want to read my blog posts on history and writing? They’re on my Lisahistory blog.

Until next time, keep grousing!

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In this issue: Resuming the Victorian mysteries, The Assassination Bureau, Glass Onion, and the Bummer at Luna Beach cover reveal.

Missing the Victorian mysteries?

Me, too! But soon I will be back to writing Murder at the Gasworks, the prequel to the Tommy Jones mysteries. I’ve wondered myself how Tommy became the ward of Cuthbert Slaughter and his wife, so it’s time to get going.

The Victorian era has so much in common with today. Fascinated by the latest gadget? Worried about the environment? Frustrated that the government doesn’t implement the will of the people? Interested in gender issues? All of these were debated and written about extensively in 19th century England.

This is why it’s so enjoyable to do the research. The reader must feel they are part of the era through historical detail, but the overall social setting already seems familiar. And I love technology, so the gasworks is a great subject. There were several gasworks serving London in the 1860s, all competing against each other (oh, yeah, that’s another familiar topic!). The one shown above was in the City of London, which is where much of my novel will take place. 

The Assassination Bureau

I love old movies, as you know, but many of my favorites aren’t commonly known.

Take The Assassination Bureau. Oliver Reed and Diana Rigg are at their serious silly best. Based on an unfinished thriller by Jack London, it’s the story of Ivan Dragomiloff and his nemesis, Sonia Winter. She has discovered that Dragomiloff runs an organization that kills immoral reprobates for pay. She’s decided he’s one of those reprobates.

Set in 1908, Winter is a women’s rights activist, and gets funded by her employer to hire Dragomiloff to assassinate . . . himself. He’s not upset by this. In fact, he’s downright pleased at setting his minions to the task. It gives him an opportunity to purge his organization, because most members are killing for money rather than morality. A very fun film.

Glass Onion review

I like new movies too, or almost new, anyway — it’s 2002. I saw the first film in what is now obviously a series (“A Knives Out Mystery“, says the subtitle).

Glass Onion intrigued me with its title, since I know the Beatles song well. Turns out that’s the name of the actually glass feature in the billionaire’s home, and I was delighted they used so much music, including the song. Janelle Monáe is outstanding.

The beginning was great, because it was set up exactly like an Agatha Christie: a small group is invited to a billionaire’s isolated island retreat for a murder weekend. All the guests (except the detective) have had their careers advanced by the billionaire. What follows are murder, and twists and turns, just like you’d expect, set against a glorious production design I’d call Billionaire Modern.

It’s worth watching just for Janelle Monáe’s portrayal of Andi (Cassandra – don’t miss the classical reference!) Brand. The guest star cameos are fun, too, but unnecessary.

Daniel Craig again plays Detective Benoit Blanc, but I didn’t enjoy his interpretation of the character any more than in Knives Out. I just can’t figure out what he’s trying to do with the character. Any idea, just tell me in comments! 

Cover reveal

Only for newsletter subscribers and visitors to my website, it’s the cover reveal for Bummer at Luna Beach, my upcoming cozy mystery.

Release date is April 20, but I still have a spot for an early reviewer (just email me at lisa@grousablebooks.com). If you are on LibraryThing, I’ll be putting early reviewer copies there too for free in February. After that, the paperback and e-book will be available at all the usual booksellers, including my shop if you want it autographed.

And more!

• Want to read previous newsletters? They’re located here at my website, where you can also find information and buy links to all my books. You can post comments there too.
• Want to read my blog posts on history and writing? They’ve moved back to my Lisahistory blog, which I’m busy reorganizing. (Two blogs was just silly.)

Until next time, keep grousing!

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In this issue: more ARC reading opportunities, a fave Miss Marple, why we love mysteries with hubris, and ordering direct from an author.

ARC reading in the new year

I have expanded the team and have a few more ARC reader spots available for Bummer at Luna Beach, my first SoCal cozy mystery.

What are ARC readers? As I mentioned last time, ARC readers are keen book lovers who receive a free e-copy of a book before it’s published (an Advance Review Copy), then provide general feedback to the author (if they’re comfortable), then share their support of the book with friends, on social media, and anywhere else they can think of. And that’s it!

Bummer at Luna Beach begins with a dead body on the beach, covered in sand at the bottom of a sea bluff. There’s a real police detective on the case, but he’s new to the town of San Benno. In steps Rosie McMahon, 72-year-old maven, to assist.  Like all my mysteries, it’s a story with appealing characters and a serious underlying theme. Definitely in the “cozy mystery” category. 

For this book, I’ll be sending out an e-copy this month, and asking for some sharing by the beginning of March. Book release date (paperback and e-book) is April 20.

If this sounds good to you, email me at lisa@grousablebooks.com.

Miss Marple

Who’s your favorite TV/movie Miss Marple? Margaret Rutherford in the old films? Geraldine Ewan, Julia Mackenzie, or Joan Hickson on Masterpiece? How about Angela Lansbury in The Mirror Crack’d?

Although Agatha Christie’s female sleuth is sometimes thought of as a doddering old lady, most actors played her as more intelligent than the other characters. She is an older woman who is underestimated by those around her, often by her own design. 

Each portrayal is different, but I’d go with Joan Hickson as the most unassuming and underestimated, a Miss Marple you would hardly notice, asking suspects ordinary questions and placing hints for the other characters when they are most needed. But one would have to go back and read the books again to decide who was most faithful to Christie’s character.

Why mysteries? Hubris!

The more chaotic our world is, the more we love our mysteries. In the best novels, the reader has the assurance that justice will prevail, an especially potent motif when it seems like this isn’t happening in the real world. For some, the thrill is the race between the reader and the sleuth to solve the puzzle. 

I am not into puzzles, I’m not a game player, and I’m not fascinated by the criminal mind. Fairness and justice are my ingrained values, while hypocrisy and unallayed selfishness are anathema. Psychotic killers are of little interest to me, which is why I don’t write thrillers. Rather, like Arthur Conan Doyle, I write stories where intelligence prevails and the killer is caught.

Why are they caught? Certainly because the sleuth is cleverer than they are, but also because of hubris. Translated loosely as “excessive pride”, hubris is a self-centeredness so profound that the character follows his own goals heedless of the pain they cause. They haven’t inherited the estate? They kill the person who has. They were rejected by someone they loved? Overlooked vocationally or socially? Bullied or harassed? They get their revenge.

Hubris causes their own downfall, not just the sleuth putting together clues. The guilty characters have brought it upon themselves. Perhaps they lied and were found out, or left behind something that could be traced, or forgot to burn that important piece of evidence. We smirk when the murderer reveals him/herself accidentally. But it’s fun to trace the tales where hubris plays a role, where the criminals are hoisted on their own petard.

Grousable Bookshop

With the recent publication of hardcover editions of the Tommy Jones Mysteries, I am reminded that most readers order from online booksellers like Bookshop.org for print versions, and e-book dealers like Kobo or Amazon for e-reader versions.

All dealers, all retailers, take a cut for themselves—they wouldn’t stay in business otherwise. Ordering directly, however, provides more profit for the author. It can also make signed copies available.

So when you get a chance, visit the Grousable Bookshop. Each of my books is listed there in all the available formats, and I mail it out myself so a dedication or signature is easy.

And more!

• Want to read previous newsletters? They’re located here at my website, where you can also find information and buy links to all my books. You can post comments there too.
• Want to read my blog posts on historical research and writing? They’re here.

Until next time, keep grousing!

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15 December

Included within are a Silver Medal award, the Smashwords 50% off sale, behind the scenes at A Haunting in Venice, biography and authenticity, and a request for ARC readers.

An award!

Thrilled to report that A Heart Purloined was chosen for a Silver Medal by the Coffee Pot Book Club in the UK.

The award was in the Historical Romance category. If you’ve been following my ambivalence about romance, and my concerns about writing one, you’ll know I feel especially appreciated by this award. 

50% off special

Now through the end of the month, Smashwords is having a huge sale on e-books, and mine should be available at half off.

So if you’re missing one of the Tommy Jones Victorian murder mysteries, or haven’t yet read A Heart Purloined (the historical romance mystery that just won the Coffee Pot Book Club Silver Medal), now’s the time.

Behind the Scenes

It will surprise no one to know that I watch a lot of historical films. Friends refuse to watch them with me, because I’m horrible. I say things like “that would so not be in the 18th century” and “he wouldn’t say that in 1910”. I question everything from earrings to window drapes. 

At the same time, I have my own history in the theatre world, behind the scenes. I was a pro lighting designer for a short time, and helped build sets and do costumes. So, with that background, allow me to introduce you to the Set Decorators Society of America. Set decorators work with the production designer to make the scenery work for the mood and setting of the film. So for historicals, they are very busy people.

Check out this Behind the Scenes SDSA interview with set decorator Celia Bobak about A Haunting in Venice. She talks about how they created a haunted centuries-old Venetian palazzo.

And yes, A Haunting in Venice is loosely based on an Agatha Christie story, so Hercule Poirot is a main character. He’s played by Kenneth Branagh but these days, you know, there really isn’t anyone else.

Authenticity and biography

When writing a biography, the author cannot help but get tangled in their subject’s life. And although they may seem to be objective, biographies have a thesis like any other history book — the author has a reason for writing it. Perhaps s/he sees previous biographies of this person as deficient in some way. Maybe some new evidence has been discovered. Or maybe the person’s life could be re-examined in the context of the new trends in what’s acceptable behavior.

But it adds another layer to fictionalize the biography into the “biopic”, a movie about someone’s life. Here we take a step away from the biographical work itself to create the person as a movie character (think Alan Turing in The Imitation Game, or Robert Oppenheimer in the recent eponymous film). Then we take a further step as the actor interprets that character written in the screenplay.

It’s tough to argue about the authenticity of a biographical movie, since we’re already so many steps away from the subject. And yet, the performances may fix the historical figure in our minds. To many, Hal Holbrook will always be Mark Twain, William Windom is James Thurber, William Daniels is John Adams. This is despite the fact that often the clothes, hair, and look of the actor playing the role might say more about when the film was made then the time it represents!

When more than one actor has played someone, there are disputes about the best. Strangely enough, one of the most important arguments is over a character who is completely fictional. If you ever want to start a fight in a pub, say who your favorite Sherlock Holmes is. Or James Bond. While we may have an emotional response to someone’s actual life story, we dream in fiction.

ARC readers, please?

I have three slots available for Advanced Review Copy readers to read Bummer at Luna Beach, to be released in April. It’s set in the fictitious southern California beach town of San Benno. Here’s the draft blurb:

A body has been found at Luna Beach, one hairy arm sticking out of the sand at the bottom of the bluff. While police detective Rory Gallardo and his staff uncover the man’s origins, 72-year-old Rosie McMahon and her cat Hephaestus are also on the case. Pursuing clues with the help of her journalist pal Lou and environmentalist student Tiffany, Rosie discovers a mystery bigger than a dead tourist.

Set against the backdrop of a classic Southern California beach town, Bummer at the Beach is a cozy mystery to win the hearts of those who like their beach towns funky.

What is an ARC reader? It’s someone who reads a book before it’s published (an Advance Review Copy), provides general feedback to the author, then shares their support of the book with friends, on social media, and anywhere else they can think of. For this book, I’ll be sending out an e-copy in January, and asking for sharing by the beginning of March.

If this sounds good to you, email me at lisa@grousablebooks.com.

And more!

• Want to read previous newsletters? They’re located here at my website, where you can also find information and buy links to all my books. You can post comments there too.
• Want to read my blog posts on historical research and writing? They’re here.

Until next time, keep grousing!

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1 December

Included within is a free short story, a fun time at the Encinitas Holiday Fair, a book update, railways in Britain, and a Guilty Pleasure movie. Welcome to new subscribers!

Free short story

I’m offering the e-book for “Murder Steampunk Style” free to new newsletter subscribers. But that’s not fair since you already subscribe. Download it here but please don’t share the link. It’s not historical, but it’s fun, and has a guest star. 

When obnoxious steampunk author Vernon Sledge is found dead at the 19th Annual Steampunk Convention in San Diego, it is up to high school teacher Emily Carter and her students to help un- ravel the mystery. Assisted by convention attendees in their neo-Victorian finery and at least one Sherlock Holmes, the team follows the clues from the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, the vendor tables, and author interviews to discover whodunnit. 

Selling books in costume

What happens when five historical fiction authors sell books at a holiday street fair in Encinitas? Well, things get interesting!

We each dressed in the timeframe of one of our novels, and we looked fabulous! And although the day started drizzly, it ended up sunny and bright. (A little too sunny — I didn’t bring sunscreen and wished I had.) 

Books!

I look forward to doing more appearances in California beach towns, especially once Bummer at Luna Beach is released in April.  It’s revision time since I just received the manuscript from my brilliant editor. Cover reveal coming soon!

If you’re looking for a classic mystery, I just finished reading The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie. I know, it’s a shame I haven’t read it before. No spoilers here, but it’s a classic because of who the murderer turns out to be. It’s a trick so famous that few authors have used it since. So I already knew whodunnit, but I didn’t know the story, and in this one Hercules Poirot is continually keeping things up his sleeve. Although that does get annoying, his questioning of suspects often seems to focus on the trivial, and you keep reading to figure out what he’s up to. 

In new books, I’m very much enjoying A Fire at the Exhibition. I met T. E. Kinsey at Bouchercon, and he’s as delightful as his work.  Although this is Book 10 in the Lady Hardcastle series and I’ve yet to read the others, it stands alone. Lady Hardcastle and her assistant/companion are friends despite the class difference (a motif that Kinsey told me he enjoys exploring). They solve mysteries together. In this case a valuable book and two artworks have gone missing, a fire set to clear the exhibit, then there’s a murder.

It’s funny that we both happened to have created titles that reference Mussorsky’s musical composition “Pictures at an Exhibition”, both of us deliberately (mine is Murder at an Exhibition).

Train travel in the U.K. 

I have to admit I was still jet-lagged at the Encinitas fair. This time my trip to England went further afield, including to Scotland.

When I first went to the UK, in the 80s, the railway was nationalized (it would be privatized in 1993). Most of the trains ran on time. The Beeching cuts of the 1960s were still a problem, of course — many of the smaller lines had been eliminated. Some of those have reopened to carry the much larger demand. But rail drivers have gone on strike repeatedly, as have other staff, and I wanted to see why.

Trains were cancelling all over the place. Trains were delayed because the crew couldn’t get there from another train, or there were landslips, or there was something on the line (a British woman I spoke with said dismissively, “it’s the old leaves-on-the-rails excuse”). I had splurged for a First Class Britrail Pass (the joys of being an elder stateswoman), but received only one hot meal and a few cups of tea despite many train rides. There clearly weren’t enough staff on the trains, workers were exhausted as they tried desperately to look fresh and helpful, and there were mechanical problems. 

But have I mentioned to views were incredible? If my train from Inverness to Edinburgh hadn’t cancelled, I never would have taken a roundabout route via Aberdeen and seen the east coast of Scotland.

So I am not complaining, except about the companies who are, as another Brit told me, buying routes and then removing them from service to make more money. Clearly no one is getting paid enough; they are currently seeking driver trainees for the Harry Potter train in Scotland because there aren’t enough drivers. 

Guilty Pleasure

I have a number of films that I consider Guilty Pleasures, not only because they are unusual movies, but because I know them so well I can recite whole swathes of the screenplay.

One of these would be To Catch a Thief (1955), where I do know practically every line.

It’s Alfred Hitchcock, but not at all like Psycho or Frenzy. It’s the tale of a man (Cary Grant) who stole jewelry for the French Resistance during the war, and since then has lived well off his proceeds. He now has a maid and a house in the hills above the French Riviera. He was known as The Cat for his ability to prowl rooftops. Similar robberies having recently occurred, the police naturally think it’s him. He must catch the real thief before they arrest him or his old Resistance friends kill him.

Romance comes in the form of Francie (Grace Kelly), an American heiress holidaying with her mother (Jessie Royce Landis) in the Riviera. She wants the excitement of life with a cat burglar, which is exactly what he’s trying to leave behind. The movie has it all: suspense, romance, murder, jewel heists, stunning costumes, and the gorgeous Riviera in the sun. Plus the background: Grace Kelly met her future husband, the Prince of Monaco, while making the film. 

And more!

• Want to read previous newsletters? They’re located here at my website, where you can also find information and buy links to all my books. You can post comments there too.
• Want to read my blog posts on historical research and writing? They’re here.

Until next time, keep grousing!

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This newsletter introduces some older detectives, Paperback Alley in Escondido, and the recent edits of my beach cozy. A big welcome to all new subscribers!

Hurrah for older protagonists

I’ve been enjoying the very lively characters in Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series – I’m almost done with The Bullet That Missed. If you haven’t read these, do yourself a favor. The mysteries are solved by four friends who live in a retirement community and have very different backgrounds, creating a solid team. They meet in the Jigsaw room and have to get out on time to make way for the Conversational French classes. 

Osman’s writing is a master class in witty sentences and smooth cultural references. 

In some ways, the series reminds me of others where older sleuths are featured, in particular New Tricks, a British television show that ran from 2005-2013. 

A police superintendant, recently shamed for a botched job, is given charge of a division that solves cold cases. With few resources, she hires three former police officers all in their later years. Each has particular talents.

Stories with older people are fun because although modern times may challenged old-fashioned ideas. there is usually a theme of wisdom triumphing over youthful enthusiasm. Not always, of course!

Fun in Escondido, more coming November 19

I promised a photo so here it is:

I have no idea why I am leaning so much! Perhaps getting up at 6 am had something to do with it.

These indie authors are, left to right, Jolie Tunnell (author of the Idyllwild Mysteries), Pat Spencer, me, Nancy Mae Johnson, and Celeste Barclay. Next stop will be a Grousable Bookshop booth at the Encinitas Holiday Street Fair on November 19!

Edits on the beach cozy

The beach cozy has gone to my editor. I’m still waffling on the title, but at the moment I’m leaning toward Bummer at Luna Beach because it’s just different, and dead bodies are certainly a bummer. Like all my work, the book contains some serious themes in an amusing story. There are jabs at gentrification and beach towns sacrificing character to money-making, for example.

Sending a book in to an editor is always a bit scary, kind of like submitting a term paper. Will it come back all covered with red ink? The difference is, if it does, I can fix it before a grade is assigned. The moment it was sent, of course, I thought of an explanation I needed to add to Chapter 1.

After editing, I will revise again and give it to a couple of beta readers. Will I be looking for Advanced Review Copy readers? You bet I will! I’d love an ARC team of folks willing to read and publicize on social media. Stay tuned in the next newsletter if you’re interested.

The Hours

I am currently reading The Hours, by Michael Cunningham. It turns out I somehow bought two copies, with two different covers. One has a dark illustration, and the other is this:

Obviously it’s been made into a movie (2002 — good heavens, that’s over 20 years ago!). I wanted to read the book (1998) first. The prose is extraordinary, literary fiction with some close shadowing of Virginia Woolf’s style (and using her character name/situation from Mrs. Dalloway). When I picked it up, with the other cover, I didn’t know when it was published, that there was a movie, or that I already had a copy. All I knew when I read the first few pages was that I was going to like it. 

But it does make me want to read Mrs. Dalloway again.

And more

No room for a garden report this time, sorry. Next time, I hope! 

• Want to read previous newsletters? They’re located here at my website, where you can also find information and buy links to all my books. You can post comments there too.
• Want to read my blog posts on historical research and writing? They’re here.

Until next time, keep grousing!

Literary fiction in hardcover

Whether book readers have been awaiting it or not, I certainly have. My literary novel Before the Time Machine (2021) is finally available in hardcover.

There’s something about literary fiction that seems to require a hardcover version. Maybe it’s the idea that it will be in libraries, or the snob appeal, or just feeling something a little more solid and more permanent in your hand. 

This is the book I had to write, and it was my first published work of fiction.  It’s a dual-timeline novel about a present-day historian researching H. G. Wells, young Wells becoming an author during the 19th century, and the conversation they have across time and space. 

Next up for hardcover: Murder at Old St. Thomas’s.

Garden report

The watermelons dried up after Hilary, the tropic storm that, in this part of California, was not.

Each season something comes to the garden that’s new. I like fig beetles. They’re kinda funny. Last year a few came to drink the juice from the grapes, and ruined a couple of figs. Fig beetles fly with faulty air traffic control systems, bumping into things. I’ve had them bump into my face, and I just saw one bump into a Mourning Cloak butterfly (called the much more lyrical Camberwell Beauty in the UK).  They’re the bumper cars of the natural world.

But this year, they held a bumper car convention in my grapes. I didn’t know. I didn’t see. I failed to notice that some of my green grapes weren’t grapes, that half of the clusters were beetles. They were so quiet about it. I’m afraid there will be no Grousable Jam this year. 

I had to cut down the clusters, because they’d split and it smelled like a winery. The clusters were dropping grapes all over the deck.

I won’t say it was fun, but it was surreal, being surrounded by peckish and angry beetles as I closed the bar at Happy Hour. 

So instead of worrying about grapes, I wrote a poem.

Authors Selling Direct

I join a lot of promotions hoping to find new readers, but this one on Book Funnel (Sept 1-18) is particularly interesting because authors couldn’t get in without having their own online “shop”. The idea is to promote authors who sell through their own websites rather than (or in addition to) a retailer (Amazon, Waterstones, etc.). I only recently opened the Grousable Bookshop at my website. 

What’s the difference? When you order from an online retailer, the retailer takes a significant cut, even of e-books. When you buy direct from the author, there is no middleman. The author does have costs, including the fee to use whatever system is taking the payment, but they’re much lower. 

Having chosen my historical mystery romance, A Heart Purloined, for this promotion, it was fun to see the other books alongside it. Take a look at the Authors Selling Direct page and you’ll see what I mean!

Free short story: Murder Steampunk Style

It’s the last chance to download my contemporary mystery short story e-book for free before the end of Bouchercon on September 3, only two days away! So hurry on over to BookFunnel and grab a copy before it’s too late!

This was the story I originally wrote for this Bouchercon, so it’s contemporary and set in San Diego. But I couldn’t resist some Victorian elements, so it takes place at a neo-Victorian steampunk convention. I hope you enjoy it!

That crazy technology

Some readers noticed, I’m sure, the weird formats of previous newsletters. On some people’s screens they looked fine; on others, not so much. Last time I sent a second version cuz I was so embarrassed by the first one. 

I love online technologies — I really do! But mailing list programs are a little insane. They need to keep everyone’s email — that’s no big deal. But they also need to use certain server settings to discourage the emails landing in a Spam folder at the other end. And they have lots of options, some of which don’t work very well. I’d been trying to get MailerLite to send my newsletter posts to you when I post them, but the formatting was, shall we say, unpredictable.

So two weeks ago, I spent an entire day upgrading to the new MailerLite and learning how to structure my newsletter. I didn’t like any of their formats, so I got into the HTML code (I only get free access for the first 30 days) and started hacking. Long ago (1998) I started teaching online, and if you didn’t know some code (well, it’s actually Markup Language, not code) you couldn’t do anything online. Lots of trial and error, but I’m hoping the newsletter will look better from now on! 

Links

Want to read previous newsletters? They’re located here at my website, where you can also find information and buy links to all my books.

Want to read previous blog posts? They’re here. 

Until next time!